312 THE SHEEP OF GREAT BEITAIN. 



" Annals of Agriculture," the Bampton is designated " the 

 best breed in Devonshire," and it is asserted that it had '' existed 

 in the neighbourhood of Bampton from time immemorial." If 

 a portrait furnished bj Vancouver as an illustration to his 

 " Survey of Devon in 1808 " may be taken as a faithful 

 delineation of the true original Bampton, the fact of being the 

 best in the county ought not to advance the animal too highly 

 in modern estimation — great coarseness and want of symmetry 

 in form being apparent. The contrast is so striking between 

 the well-shaped, high-quality sheep here depicted by Mr. 

 Harrison Weir and the old portrait of the Bampton referred 

 to, that it is difficult to fancy the one animal descended from 

 the other. But this contrast is probably not greater than that 

 which existed between the old breed of Leicestershire and 

 the improved Leicester or Dishley sheep after Bakewell had 

 exerted thereon his magical powers of transmutation. 



But Mr. Andernon, in the letter referred to, gives a descrip- 

 tion of the Bamptons of the last century. He says : " They are 

 generally whitefaced; the best bred more like the Leicester- 

 shire than any other, but larger boned and longer in the legs 

 and the body, yet not so long as the Wiltshires, with which they 

 have been crossed, nor so broad-backed as the Leicesters. A 

 fat ewe rises to 201b. a quarter on an average, and wethers to 

 301b. or 351b. a quarter at two years old. 181b. of wool have 

 been shorn from a ram of this breed that was supposed to be 

 401b. the quarter. The carcass is coarser than that of the 

 Dorset, and the wool about 2d. per pound cheaper." 



Billingsley, in his "Agricultural Survey of Somerset," pub- 

 lished in 1798, affords a similar description, alluding to 

 the Bampton Breed as " a valuable sort, not much unlike the 

 Leicester, well made, and covered with a thick fleece of wool 

 weighing in general 71b. or 81b., and they sometimes reach even 

 the weight of 121b., and sell at about 10^. per pound." He also 

 adds : " The sale ewes are put to the ram at about the latter 

 end of July, and the flock ewes about a month after. Young 

 rams are preferred, as it is supposed that old ones degenerate 

 in the quality and weight of their wool. The wethers of this 

 breed when two years old and fattened on turnips attain the 

 weight of about 251b. per quarter, and, being driven to Bristol 



